Leprechaun

This past weekend, Melanie and Ben created a "leprechaun trap." Now, this is the first year Ben was quite into this event. So, the night before St. Patrick's Day, I wrote a note on the trap from the leprechaun, so when Ben woke up he would see it. This is what it read:

"HA HA HA! You can't catch me! Better luck next time, Ben!"

The next morning, I came downstairs and Ben was just SOBBING. What I could get out of him was that the trap wasn't set up, and he wasn't ready for the leprechaun, and the leprechaun left a mean note (which he proceeded to crumple up and throw in the garbage).

Oh, great.

After he calmed down, I convinced him that it was still St. Patrick's Day and he could still set up his trap and the leprechaun would know that it was there. I also reminded him that nobody really ever gets to catch a leprechaun, but sometimes he gets scared of the traps and might leave something behind, like his shoe.....

OK. Ben went off to school hopeful about setting up another trap. Then, after my class, I went to the party store to look for something I could do to make up for my "mean leprechaun note" fiasco. I bought chocolate, gold coins for all the kids, plus I found a cute, little green hat. A perfect leprechaun hat!!

Ben got home from school that day, and set up his trap. It took him a long time to get it just right, but at least he was still happy about doing it! After he went to bed, I covered the opening to the box (as if the trap was sprung) and placed the hat inside.

This morning, Ben got up extra early and came running into my room to tell me about the hat. He was so pleased! When his dad got home, Ben showed him the trap and gave a lengthy explanation about it, then told him: "I guess he DOES come two times!" To which Joe replied, "Well, it was still St. Patrick's Day, so he still came!" Ben was so excited, he took the hat to school for show and tell.

Whew......

That was just about as bad as the time we forgot to leave tooth fairy money under the girls' pillows. We had to say: "OH, wow! I guess the tooth fairy must have left the money in a different place this time! Let's go find it!"

You gotta be a quick thinker when you're a parent.....